Chapter 9 - THE LAST MAN RUNNINGAaron Pike vanished before sunrise.
His house was empty.
Bank accounts drained.
Car abandoned near O’Hare.
For three days, nothing.
Meanwhile, the Cross empire collapsed.
Damian was charged with kidnapping, assault, conspiracy, bribery, obstruction, financial crimes, and multiple offenses connected to deaths under investigation.
Charles Mercer accepted a cooperation agreement.
In exchange for truthful testimony, prosecutors agreed to consider his assistance at sentencing.
Helena did not forgive him.
But she visited him once.
They sat across from each other in a secure interview facility.
Charles looked twenty years older.
“I loved you.”
Helena nodded.
“I know.”
He seemed surprised.
“I thought you’d say I didn’t.”
“You loved me.”
She folded her hands.
“You just loved your power more.”
Charles began crying.
Helena did not comfort him.
There were some consequences another person could not carry for you.
“You sent me back to Damian.”
“I was afraid.”
“So was I.”
Charles looked down.
That was the end of the argument.
Helena stood.
“Will you ever forgive me?”
She paused.
“I don’t know.”
Then she left.
Outside, Gabriel waited.
He didn’t ask what happened.
He simply walked beside her.
Cynthia entered therapy and moved into a small apartment far from Lake Forest.
For the first time in forty years, she had no husband, no staff, no family reputation to maintain.
Helena visited her.
Carefully.
Love without denial.
Compassion without pretending the past had not occurred.
Isabelle moved into Gabriel’s guesthouse.
Their reunion was awkward in ways neither had expected.
Twenty-one missing years could not be repaired over breakfast.
But they started.
Coffee.
Old photographs.
Stories.
Silences.
Sometimes that was enough.
Then Detective Pike resurfaced.
A camera captured him outside Cynthia’s apartment building.
Gabriel saw the alert first.
He called Helena.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
He was already moving before Naomi returned his call.
“Where is Helena?”
“She left Cynthia’s twenty minutes ago.”
Gabriel felt cold.
“Destination?”
“Your townhouse.”
“She isn’t here.”
Then Helena’s phone came online.
For three seconds.
Enough to triangulate.
South Side industrial district.
Near the warehouse.
The same warehouse where Gabriel had found her.
Of course.
Pike wanted symmetry.
Or revenge.
Gabriel arrived before federal agents.
Victor drove.
“You know Brooks is going to murder us.”
“She can get in line.”
They entered through the side door.
No lights.
Gabriel heard Helena.
“Don’t come closer.”
Pike laughed.
Gabriel followed the sound.
Helena stood beneath the broken skylight.
Pike behind her.
Gun against her ribs.
Everything had returned to where it began.
Except Helena was different.
No torn dress.
No pleading.
No surrender.
Pike looked exhausted.
Unshaven.
Desperate.
“You ruined everything.”
Helena’s voice remained steady.
“No. You did.”
“I had a pension.”
“You sold your badge.”
“I had a family.”
“So did Martin Keene.”
Pike hit her.
Gabriel stepped from the darkness.
“Enough.”
Pike swung the gun.
“Stay there!”
Gabriel stopped.
Helena looked at him.
Their eyes met.
No panic.
Pike laughed.
“This is almost romantic.”
Gabriel ignored him.
“Helena.”
“I’m okay.”
Pike pressed the gun harder.
“No, she isn’t.”
Gabriel studied Pike.
“You’re not getting out.”
“I have a vehicle.”
“FBI has the district surrounded.”
“You’re lying.”
“Probably.”
Pike’s eyes darted toward the windows.
That was enough.
Helena drove her elbow backward.
Pike cursed.
The gun swung away.
Gabriel crossed the distance.
A struggle.
Metal hitting concrete.
Pike reached for the weapon.
Helena kicked it beneath a pallet.
Victor arrived and pinned Pike against the floor.
Seconds later federal agents flooded the warehouse.
Naomi entered furious.
“Voss!”
Gabriel raised both hands.
“You seem upset.”
“I specifically told you—”
“He was already inside,” Victor said.
Naomi glared.
“You are not helping.”
Pike was dragged away.
Helena leaned against a pillar.
Gabriel approached.
“You hurt?”
“No.”
“Sure?”
“Yes.”
He looked at the place where he had first found her.
“So.”
Helena followed his gaze.
“So.”
“Different night.”
“Different woman.”
Gabriel smiled.
“Yes.”
Helena looked at him.
“There’s something I should tell you.”
“What?”
“That night, I meant what I said.”
His smile disappeared.
“When I asked you to kill me.”
Gabriel said nothing.
“I really wanted it to end.”
She looked down.
“I couldn’t imagine another life.”
Gabriel moved closer.
“And now?”
Helena took a long breath.
“Now I want all of it.”
“All of what?”
“My life.”
She smiled.
“The messy parts. The terrifying parts. The boring Tuesdays. Coffee that tastes terrible. Arguments about laundry. Getting older.”
Her eyes filled.
“I want things I didn’t think I’d get.”
Gabriel touched her cheek gently.
“You will.”
She looked at him.
“You sound very certain.”
“I usually am.”
“And when you aren’t?”
Gabriel remembered the parking garage.
“I say less.”
Helena laughed.
Then kissed him.
Not desperately.
Not because he had saved her.
Because she chose to.
Gabriel kissed her back.
Victor turned dramatically toward Naomi.
“I personally see nothing.”
Naomi rolled her eyes.
“Get outside.”
Weeks passed.
Then months.
The trials began.
Damian’s lawyers fought everything.
But Rose’s recordings, Rachel’s testimony, Isabelle’s evidence, Charles’s cooperation, and Damian’s own archive created a case too large to bury.
One by one, other defendants made agreements.
Then Damian’s closest associates began testifying.
The empire that had taken twenty years to build collapsed in less than one.
Finally came Helena’s day in court.
She walked toward the witness stand.
Damian sat at the defense table.
For a moment, she remembered every night she had been afraid of him.
Then she saw Gabriel seated behind the prosecution.
Beside him sat Cynthia.
Isabelle.
Rachel.
People Damian had tried to silence.
Helena took the oath.
Damian stared at her.
She stared back.
And for the first time, she realized she felt nothing.
Not terror.
Not hatred.
Nothing.
He no longer owned space inside her.
The prosecutor approached.
“Mrs. Cross, are you ready?”
Helena looked toward the jury.
May you like
“Yes.”
And she began.
